South Dakota state senators reject request to amend 1863 law forcing Sioux tribes onto reservations
PIERRE — South Dakota senators turned down a request from Sioux tribes asking the state to send resolutions to Congress supporting the amending of the 1863 federal law that led to their removal from Minnesota to reservations elsewhere in the Midwest.
Crow Creek Tribal Chairman Lester Thompson explained to the Senate State Affairs Committee that his tribe was "forcibly banished" from Minnesota to South Dakota following the Dakota conflict in 1862. The conflict resulted in the mass hanging of 38 Dakota men in Minnesota, said Flandreau Santee Sioux tribal attorney Seth Pearman. The conflict and its reasons for it are no longer an issue today, but the 1863 Dakota Removal Act is still in effect, Thompson said.
"Now we're U.S. citizens so treat us like U.S. citizens," Thompson said.
The resolution isn't ceding any land or requesting any money, but is instead cleaning up the federal language stating "that these Dakota people have no place in Dakota Territory or in Minnesota," explained resolution sponsor Sen. Troy Heinert, D-Mission. The resolution also calls for the United States to issue a formal statement of reconciliation to the tribes who were affected by the act.
Read more: https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/22/senators-reject-request-repeal-1863-law-forcing-sioux-tribes-reservations/2950439002/